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The Catholic Worker newspaper announced the publication of twenty-some poems by the University of Iowa Press a few months ago. The poems were written by Guantanamo prisoners. They were allowed to be published only after the censors at Guantanamo had censored them. This one was written by Mr. Abu Kabir:

IS IT TRUE?
Is it true that the grass
Grows again after rain?
Is it true that the flowers
Will rise up in the spring?
Is it true that birds
Will migrate home again?
Is it true that the salmon
Swim back up their stream?

It is true. This is true. These are all miracles.
But is it true that one day
We’ll leave Guantanamo Bay?
Is it true that one day
We’ll go back to hour homes?
I sail in my dreams, I am dreaming of home.

To be with my children, each one part of me;
To be with my wife, and the ones that I love,
To be with my parents,
My world's tenderest hearts.
I dream to be home, to be free from this cage.

But do you hear me, O Judge,
Do you hear me at all?
We are innocent, here,
We've committed no crime.
Set me free, set us free, if anywhere still
May justice, compassion
Remain in this world.

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